Dance From The Other Side – A Male Perspective

It’s May and it feels like summer here. My school’s Spring Concert is taking place this week with two evening performances. The boys have been working hard on our “Men In Black” Hip Hop routine. I’m excited to see it on stage and see everyone’s reaction.

Competition season is over now for our Studio. All the teams had a great time performing and we had some amazing results. Congrats to Lilly and Sarah on their incredible ballet results! Reese and I did really well with our ballet duet and our group dances just seemed to get better at every competition. It really hit home, how few guys are dancing competitively out there! I don’t think that I saw more than 4 or 5 at any of the competitions, and one competition I was at had 24 studios competing. At my last competition, our studio was the only one that had any guys competing, so I got the “boys” change room all to myself which was pretty cool. Because there are so few boys, we don’t get “real” change rooms. At one of the competitions, we changed in the stairwell, at another we had a little tiny room far away from the practise space, team change rooms and stage. As a guy competing, when I do competitions it kind of distances me from the rest of my team. So, I get to fill in my time just preparing for my performance. I had lots of time to warm up, while the girls are all getting hair and makeup done. What I learned from my first competition season, always pack your bag with costumes for the competition early, in case there are any repairs or cleaning required. I wore white pants for my jazz routine and after every competition they were really dirty and needed to be washed. My Mom kept me going, but I forgot to tell her that one of the elastics on a hat I used for my Jazz routine broke until the day of my next performance, so it was a bit of a panic to get it fixed before we left the house. Always bring extra socks, if you are a guy. I forgot to pack extra black socks in my bag for one performance and we had to stop and buy a pair, Oops! Always pack water and snacks, because sometimes you are at competition all day and it isn’t always easy to get out to a restaurant to eat. After you finish your act on stage you have to wait for adjudication and then you may have to go get changed for another performance, so it means you can be there for hours waiting to either perform on stage or wait for awards.

My dance year is slowing down now, competitions are over, exams are over, and my Studio Recital is in 3 weeks. At NBS, I will be performing in the end of year showcase in June. We are working on our dance for the showcase. It will be fun, as we get to dance in the Betty Oliphant Theatre which attached to the school. We don’t dress up for the Showcase, but we all have to look our best. We wear our regular ballet uniform which for me is a white leotard, black tights and white socks and ballet slippers.

NBS Summer School will be starting in less than 2 months. I received an e-mail registration package for weekend excursions. There are so many fun activities, I had a hard time choosing. There was a baseball game, Niagara Falls, Canada’s Wonderland, African Safari, CN Tower, a Theatre performance, bowling, laser tag, and pottery at the Museum! I ended up picking bowling, laser tag, the Theatre, the African Safari, because I have already been to Niagara Falls and Canada’s Wonderland, and pottery which I will probably fail at, but it could be cool! We also get to go swimming and have events at the school. WOW, it sounds fantastic and then, of course, we get to dance in the most amazing studios during the day!!!!!!!!